- Drew Carey: The Cost of Securing the Southern Border
- Bob Barr’s Impact on the Presidential Race
- Obama Could Win Southern States in November
- New at Reason.com and Reason.org
Drew Carey on the Cost of Securing the Southern Border
Building a wall along the border with Mexico is a great idea – if America wants to be like China and the former East Germany, according to a new Reason.tv video. The segment, hosted by Drew Carey, suggests there are better ways to ensure American security, while also promoting free trade with our southern neighbor. “One way out of this mess would be to simply allow peaceful workers to enter our country through legal ports of entry,” Carey says in the video. “If we did that we could stimulate our economy, bring a huge underground labor market out into the open and we could put unscrupulous smugglers out of business. More importantly, we’d free up border patrol resources that could be used to fight criminals and terrorism.”
» Drew Carey: Immigration and the Beckham Factor
» Archive of Reason.tv’s Drew Carey Videos
Bob Barr’s Impact on the Presidential Race
Can former Georgia Congressman Bob Barr, the Libertarian Party’s presidential nominee, be a spoiler in November? Reason magazine’s David Weigel writes that Barr’s mere presence may be enough to hurt Sen. John McCain, “Barr doesn’t actually need to spoil Georgia, to use the state. He merely needs to force McCain to fight for the state. That, as much as Florida, was the effect of the 2000 Nader run. In the waning days of the race, Al Gore had to waste time campaigning in states he should have locked up long before, like Minnesota and Oregon, because Nader was polling close to 10 percent in them. (Nader eventually broke 5 percent in both states.) Meanwhile, George W. Bush was able to expand the map and dither with an 11th hour California campaign jaunt. McCain will have less money to spend than Obama, and Georgia’s an expensive state. The last competitive statewide race, the 2002 Senate battle between Saxby Chambliss and Max Cleland, cost a total of $18 million. That’s as much as McCain raised in the month of April. Unless Barr really takes off and starts scoring Perot-like numbers, that’s the risk for McCain right now: Wasted resources and wasted time, while Obama is free to plunge into Colorado, Nevada, Ohio, etc.”
» David Weigel’s Reports from the Libertarian Party Convention
Obama Could Win Southern States in November
From North Carolina, Reason magazine’s Jeff Taylor writes, “The problem for John McCain starts with his lack of popularity among Southern conservatives. He is respected, but not beloved by supporters. This contrasts sharply with the frenzy Barack Obama generates, as evidenced by his resounding primary wins across the South, none more impressive than his May 6th victory in North Carolina, where Obama pulled in nearly 900,000 of almost 1.6 million Democratic votes. In November 2004, John Kerry, with a former North Carolina senator on his ticket, only totaled 1.5 million votes in the state, losing to Bush-Cheney’s 1.9 million. There are two schools of thought on what these numbers mean. First, it is argued that Obama has basically maxed out his possible new voter total in North Carolina and across the South. Combined with moderate voters reassessing his candidacy and fatigue among his supporters, this would wash out any modest gains in new Obama votes between now and the general election. This view seems doubtful given the energy Obama generates, which puts me in the second camp; those who believe that Obama, as the official presidential nominee of Democratic Party, will touch off a massive get out the vote effort across the South.”